The Daily Drool: Vytautas Andriuškevičius

Left back Vytautas just made the move from Portland Timbers to DC United. He has represented Lithuania at the U19, U21 and senior levels.

The Daily Drool: Tomás Conechny

He’s legal, I swear! 20 year old attacking midfielder Tomás just made the move from San Lorenzo to the Portland Timbers on loan. He has represented Argentina at the U17 and U20 levels.

The Daily Drool: Zarek Valentin

Defender Zarek currently plays for MLS side Portland Timbers. He has represented the United States at the U20 and U23 levels.

Puskas Award Nominees Announced

FIFA announced the 10 contenders for the Puskas Award (Goal of the Year) today and there are some doozies.

The Daily Drool: Darlington Nagbe

Attacking midfielder/winger Darlington currently plays for MLS side Portland Timbers. Born in Liberia, he lived in France, Greece and Switzerland before settling in Cleveland, Ohio when he was 11. The reason for all the moving was his dad, Joe Nagbe, was a professional footballer and captain of the Liberian National Team. Almost every picture of him has him flashing that fantastic smile, but I definitely enjoyed this more stoic shot with a piece of the Timbers’ famous log. Still a Liberian citizen, he has a US green card and is married to an American (his college girlfriend, Felicia – they have a baby girl due any minute), so he may be eligible to play for the USMNT as early as 2015. He seems like such a sweet guy, with a really interesting story.

The Daily Drool: Jake Gleeson

Goalkeeper Jake plays for MLS side Portland Timbers. He’s represented New Zealand at the U17, U20, U23 and senior levels. Doesn’t he look like someone morphed him with Alvaro Morata? I see such a resemblance with our King Muppet Baby in his eyes/eyebrows.

Training, A Luncheon, Juan Mata Profile & More

I’m leaving for the airport in an hour or so if I can peel Max the Cat off me. He’s very sad. I hate leaving him behind but he’s not a beach sort of cat! Maisougio will be your daily Perv Concierge while I’m sunning my rivaling-Iker-Casillas-pallor in Mexico for a couple of days with watishista P. So this will be a drive by. The day has been textbook Lozil thus far. I tripped over my suitcase earlier and nearly knocked myself out. Never fails. I am the world’s biggest klutz. So I’ll be starting the vacation bruised but hopefully I’ve gotten all the drama out of the way. If I owe you an email, please forgive me – I’m totally behind on work, packing, everything. I’ll get on it when I return next week.

The team trained again today and the good news is that Mesut was back with them – hooray! Looks like he’ll be just fine for the final on Friday.

The Daily Drool – MLS West: Sal Zizzo

Winger/striker Sal plays for the Portland Timbers. He has also represented the US on the U18, U20 & U23 team. He made one appearance for the senior team in 2007. Sal just opened Zizzo’s FC, a food cart in Portland and from all the reviews, the food is pretty darn tasty. So if you’re in Portland, stop on by and get yourself some tasty Italian sandwiches!